The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-15
STILL ANOTHER CHARITY.
Points About the Trainin
School for Nurses.


as it is also subject of pride among our
selves. that Savannah is noted for the char
table disposition Of its citizens, and its area
is dotted by numerous charitable institu-
lions. We have justly earned the title of
beng the "City of Charities There are
eighteen churches with seating capacity for
10000 OF the white population, and twenty
churches with sittings for about $4,000 of
the colored race. Thisi is good religious basis
to work from. Apart from the numerous
individual and parochial churches of these
forty congregations (which are not here
taken into accouuth, there are public institu-
tions to cover the needs and necessities of
poverty and sickness at almost every stage
Let us realize, by hasty survey, how very
true it is that the wants of the distressed
part of our population are met at every
turn by an institution adapted to meet its
necessity. If a poor mother needs a place
to leave her babe while she is earning her
daily bread the Day Nursery stands ready
to receive her little one, and to leave the
mothers hands free for her work. If that
little one should happen to be bereft
of both parents, left a tiny waif on the
worlds rough stream, the Minnie Mission
opens its sheltering arms TO give it perma-
nent home. If girl, and not so young as
this little one, but still an orphan, three in
situations, the Episcopal Orphans Home,
the Catholic Orphanage and the City Asy-
lum ore ready to receive these girls and
train them for honest and Industrious
womanhood. If boy, we scarcely need to
name that great charity of Whitfield, Be-
thesda, with its wise, healthy and wholesome
discipline for young boyhood. Youth of
both sexes, we can safely say, is well pro-
vided for, but how about the middle age
and old age9 If worthy
poor woman is in need the Widowss Home
provides her with room rent Free the In
dustrial Society furnishes both food, fuel,
and in special cases a homo; the Needle
Woman's Society supplies work and wages;
while for the aged and infirm, the cripple
and the decripid, Abrams Home provides
a pleasant and secure retreat from the in
firmities of advancing years. The Port
Society, with its Bethel and Sailors Home,
gives relief and protection to special class,
the hapless sailors cast upon our shore. All
these institutions mitigate the rigors OF
poverty and abate its sufferings 1t is the
same with sickness and disease. Three city
physicians, free infrmary, four hospitals
three for white patients, one for colored-
with their corps OF eminent physicians,
wait by night and by day upon the sick and
suffering.
As we survey all this charitable mechan-
ism, and surveying it, thank God, into
whose ear enters the cry OF the poor and the
desolate, for the charitable disposition of our
people, past and present--we ask: Can Sa-
vannah need anything else in the way of
helpful institutions? Are not the tears and
helplessness of the orphan done away witha
Are not the growing infirmities of old age
provided fore Are not the sick and suffer
ing tended with gentle care, and disease
fought and conquered by the best medical
skill! Is not white-robed charity, through
out our beautiful city,
finding and concealing,
Busy with her hand in healing
all the ills that mental flesh is heir to!
These questions must be answered in the
affirmative. Yet there is room for the in
stitution whose title heads this paper. |
propose to argue for such an association on
the grounds: First, the need of just such an
occupation for many women left dependent
upon their own exertiodis Secondly, the
need of Just class Of trained nurses in our
city.
1. What is there for woman to do who,
having known better days, is deprived Of
her natural protector and bread-winner3
Four things make up the category of her
ssibilities-sewing, teaching, keeping
boarders, book agent. All of these possible
sources of employment being more than
filed, and the last is too disagreeable
at all odds to be filed by a lady.
In England there are thousand occupations
open to women, where i'll this country there
is only one. Yet it is this very Class, the
woman who has been reared a lady whose
whole education has been to prepare her for
the lighter parts of the great social drama
this class, say, whose need is the greatest,
is the very class unprovided for in all our
charitable mechanisIns. She cannot dig--to
beg she is undoubtedly ashamed! What re-
mains for her to dos Picture good,
healthy, self-reliant young American girl
wishing to utilize the brains and arms ma
ture has given her TO wiring reluctant sup
port out Of lips. Where shall she turn!
think it an insult to her powers to tell that
hearty young damsel Ito get q book and
sell itm Where, then, shall she
rolls by, to school for trained nurses,
such as exist by the score in France and
England, and are springing up in the large
cities of this country. Il is q profession
eminently adapted for woman. She Is fitted
for it by nature touch so gentle ash hers, no
presence so refreshing to the sick and suffer-
ing. She need feel no degradation in this
calling, for it is the highest, next to her own
motherhood, that she can enter. She need
have no anxiety over her maintenance, the
dreaded wolf will not approach her door,
for the emoluments of this profession are al
ways large. She will be living in the line
of her life for she will be caring for the
sick and needy. By all means, then, let US
hasten the day when we can open the doors
of such school to the young women Of our
city.
2. There is another side to the question.
We have the greatest necessity every
day for Just such class of skilled and ex-
perienced nurses. The few who are here are
confined to the hospitals, but they are not
enough to meet the demand. Who that has
had any experience in the sick room, as
friend, physician, or Clergyman, does not re-
call numberless cases where there was the
most imperative demand for the nimble
fingers, the steady hand, the gentle step, the
cool Judgment the untiring vigilance of a
trained nursel How often has the cry gone
up, from agonized lips of husband or wife,
SIS there no one that is trust
worthy whom can getg' How many ex-
hausted mothers might have been spared,
by the presence of some such reliable substi-
tutel How much WEAKNESS saved, how
much suffering relieved, how many mis-
takes avoided, nay, how many lives that
have dropped over the line through loving
ignorance, might have been rescued by
some such wise and gentle ministrationl
The need is great and crying. A hundred
sick-rooms the next thirty days will bear
witness to the existence of a demand for
just that class of persons whom it is the de-
sign of this school to prepare 1t is with
much pleasure, therefore, that we learn that
u committee of prominent ladies have this
matter in hand and are engaged in study
4 l..